A seminal work of ‘60s Turkish cinema, Akad’s neorealist Western features the legendary Yilmaz Guney whose character finds himself at the crossroads between social progress and lawlessness.
Review #2,735
Dir. Lutfi Akad
1966 | Turkey | Crime, Drama, Action | 76 min | 1.37:1 | Turkish
Not rated – likely to be PG13 for some violence
Cast: Yılmaz Guney, Pervin Par, Erol Tas
Plot: In order to keep his ailing son alive, an impoverished man agrees to sneak a herd of sheep across the border..
Awards: –
Source: The Film Foundation
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Social Progress vs. Lawlessness; Community
Narrative Style: Straightforward
Pace: Normal
Audience Type: Slightly Arthouse
Viewed: Criterion Blu-ray
Spoilers: No
This is my first time seeing a Turkish Western, though it may be more accurate to describe it as a neo-Western.
The meaning of ‘neo’ here is two-fold—on the one hand, it doesn’t quite follow the conventions of the classical Western from the States; on the other hand, there are stylistic and thematic influences from the Italian neorealist movement of the late ‘40s.
Law of the Border isn’t an unforgettable film, and running at just below 80 minutes, it does feel slight and incomplete, as some critics have attested. However, there is historical and cultural value in seeing it, reinforced by The Film Foundation making it accessible via one of their World Cinema Project boxsets.
The legendary Yilmaz Guney, a cult hero in Turkish popular culture, stars as Hidir, a man caught between the two opposing forces of tradition and modernity.
Set at the Turkish-Syrian border, the reluctant Hidir is persuaded to sneak a herd of sheep across the mine-filled area for good money.
“I’ll pay you to get the sheep across.”
The ‘tradition’ in this case is the illegal border activities that the village men engage in to put food on the table, while ‘modernity’ comes in the form of change—a new school is proposed to be set up, while a newly appointed Lieutenant arrives to enforce the rule of law.
A seminal work of ‘60s Turkish cinema, by the great Lutfi Akad, Law of the Border pointed to a certain kind of authenticity that was rarely seen at the time.
Packaged as a genre film with some excellent gunfights to show (one scene even plays out stylistically like a Leone spaghetti Western with quick cuts employed in a Mexican standoff), Akad’s work was nearly lost forever during the 1980 Turkish coup d’état, save for a single surviving print.
Even the excellent restoration work couldn’t repair the irreversible extent of deterioration (e.g. loss of frames, scratches), but the fact that it is available as a Blu-ray on a cinephile’s shelf is a miracle.
Grade: B+
Promo Clip:
Eternality Tan 